A Letter to MRS. CLAUS

For hundreds of years, children have carefully written their letters of wants and needs to Santa Claus.  But, what of Mrs. Claus?  She is Santa's greatest support.  It seems only fitting that she should receive some letters too, right?  But we never think of doing that!

This year, I would encourage you to encourage your children to write a letter to Mrs. Claus.  It will be fun and interesting to see what they would say in a letter where they are not asking for stuff.  I would guess it would be more of a letter of gratitude!



Well, I won't be talking to you again until next year!  So, I'm wishing you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS full of love and warmth, happiness and plenty of chocolate!  

Doreese

Bring Christ to Your Christmas Morning

With all of the excitement over the anticipation of wonderful and many gifts, Christmas trees and lights, candy canes and Santa Claus, it's very easy for children to forget the main purpose we have a Christmas holiday.  It's pretty clear to show them who it's all about; just underline the first syllable.

Oh, many of us have Sunday School lessons about baby Jesus during December.  We sing songs about him and have Christmas programs about him.  Many of us recite the telling of his birth from the New Testament on Christmas Eve.  But, what happens on Christmas Day at your house?  As I think back on it, it was all about Santa Claus!  And, it's fun and exciting to see what Santa brings us, but on Christ's birthday, there's nothing that brings our focus back to Him.

If you would like to change that, it'd be easy enough.  There are many children's books on The New Testament.  Give each child their very own.  Then for that moment, when they open that gift, they will think, "Oh, yeah, it's Jesus's birthday today."  If they all ready have a story book about Him, give them some other object to draw their attention to the Savior.  Have it there with the rest of their gifts.  When my kids were older, I gave them a calendar that had different pictures of Christ for each month.  There are hundreds of beautiful pictures of Christ you could give them.

A good motivation for reading their New Testament books would be to have them set the goal to be to the Easter story by the time Easter comes around.  Then they can have a Christ-centered Easter too!

Doreese

Thanksgiving - Get Your Children to Think About It

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

"See abc's" spells Thanksgiving . . . C H I L D R E N

At this Thanksgiving time of the year, let's sit down with our kids or grandkids and teach them some things about Thanksgiving and what gratitude means and why the world needs this virtue so desperately.

How much do your children really know about Thanksgiving?  Do they remember much from that one or two years in school where they learned the facts about it?  The little ones need to understand it too.  Now it seems to be just the holiday that needs to hurry past before we get out the Christmas decorations and presents!  So, this year how about having an "interesting factoid" discussion about Thanksgiving with the whole family and ask questions about it to see how much they know about this wonderful holiday, and provide a teaching moment for the things they don't know?

Here's a few questions you could ask:

1.  Who was at the first Thanksgiving?    Pilgrims and Indians
2.  Did they eat turkey?  No
3.  Were the Indians friendly?  Yes
4.  Were the pilgrims friendly?  Yes
5.  Where did the pilgrims come from?  Plymouth, England - across the Atlantic Ocean
6.  What was the name of the ship that brought them?  The May Flower
7.  What did they call the place they settled?  Plymouth Rock
8.  Where is Plymouth Rock?  In what now is the state of Massachusetts
9.  What year did they hold the first Thanksgiving?  1621
10.  How long ago was that?  392 years . . . almost 400 years ago!
11.  Which Indian tribe shared in the first Thanksgiving?  The Wampanoag Indians, and they taught the Pilgrims how to cultivate the land.
12.  What President made Thanksgiving a national holiday?  Abraham Lincoln
13.  Are Pilgrims and Pioneers the same thing?  No.  The pioneers are people who crossed the plains, moving from the Eastern states to what are now the Western states.  This didn't happen until the 1800's.

Ask your children to tell you yes or no if they think the pilgrims and Indians ate these foods.  Mix up foods from the two lists:
*  Food they did not have:  Mashed potatoes, pumpkin pies, popcorn, milk, corn on the cob, and cranberries 
*  Food they could have had:  Lobster, rabbit, chicken, fish, squashes, beans, chestnuts, hickory nuts, onions, leeks, dried fruits, maple syrup and honey, radishes, cabbage, carrots, eggs, and goat cheese 

My daughter's family's gratitude tree.  Something they are grateful for is written on each leaf.  Great idea!

End your discussion with the traditional telling of things you are grateful.  And, I would write them down in a long list.  I also encourage all of you to make sure that your gratitude/blessing lists are ten times longer than your Christmas lists for Santa!

Doreese

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Tap, Don't Talk

Here's a great tip to use when helping your child read.

"Tap, don't talk."

There's nothing more frustrating to a young, beginning reader than to have his/her parent interrupting them every few seconds to correct them.  Young readers will make a lot of mistakes.  They need time to process things in their minds; mostly sounds.  If they mispronounce something, they hopefully will catch it and know that what they said doesn't make sense in the context of the story.  They also will often skip words, or add in extra words anticipating what they think the story is going to say next.  They also often substitute one word for another.  These things are important to correct, as they can completely change the meaning of the story or whatever they are reading.

There's a better way to bring these little things to your child's attention than telling them.  Hearing you correct them so much out loud really draws their attention to just how many mistakes they make.  So, rather than telling them to, "Look at it again, honey," or asking them questions such as, "How do you say this word?" or just simply saying, "Nope, that's wrong," over and over, save your breath and your child's self-esteem by simply tapping near the word they make a mistake on.  They can pause, think about it and try again.  If they miss it the second try, then tap once more.  If on the third try they still can't figure it out, then go ahead and help them.  Tapping near a substituted word; for example, they say "the" instead of "there," they will easily notice what they did wrong.  I only tap twice for each mistake.  Do NOT over emphasize the taps as that will be just as intimidating, if not more so, than you verbally correcting them all the time!

It's much nicer for your child to hear only their own voice while reading.  When you vocalize his/her mistakes, it feels like they are making many more mistakes than if you just quietly tap and allow them to correct themselves.

Happy Reading and Happy Halloween, as I won't be posting again until November.

Doreese

Can "See abc's®" Help Older Children???

Many parents wonder, "Can 'See abc's^®' help older children with reading problems?"  Well, just read the following story and see for yourself!

Millie, the mother of a beautiful, little-3rd grade daughter gave her child's teacher the following note at the spring SEP Conference:

Millie:  

        "She started out very shy and timid.  Her self-esteem was very low.  She was reluctant to even try. She was convinced that she was stupid.  Because of that, she felt that she was not as good as the others.  She was frustrated, scared and depressed all at the same time.  It was even to the point to where she was afraid to make goals or even dream.  She came home every day crying because her teacher was frustrated with her.

       We moved to College Ward, Utah, where she began the third grade at River Heights Elementary.  When her new teacher, Mrs. Nickell, began helping her with the "See abc's" reading program, she came home happy and full of hope.  She told me that she thought she had a chance, now.  The program was a simple concept that she could grasp and understand.  After three days, she came home from school and said, "I don't think it's me.  I don't think that I'm stupid."  Two weeks later, she said, "I know it's not me.  I'm not stupid.  This is even easy!"  I saw her confidence building. . . her self-esteem building. . . her happiness building!  Her willingness to participate and even her appearance and attitude changed for the better!  It gave her the strength to pick herself up, dust herself off, make new friends, and truly be happy in all  her school work, not just reading.

        One night, as I was singing to her at bedtime about the stars, she said, 'I feel like that shining star in the sky.  I have grown so much and I feel like I know what I am doing."  Now, she is convinced that school is a good thing and it's a happy piece of her life."

Of all the great stories that come in about the difference See abc's has made in the lives of children, this is one of my two most favorite!  I still can't read it without tearing up, because I know what it feels like to think you are stupid just because you are a poor or slow reader.  I'm sooooo grateful that See abc's was able to completely change not only her reading abilities, but also her sweet personality.   She completed the entire program and even read books without having to!  That's when you know a child really loves to read.  That didn't happen to me until my late 30's!

So, in answer to the question, "Can See abc's help older children?"  Yes, it absolutely can.  

Doreese

See abc's Launches Emily Far Past the Mark!

• I've told you about little Emily before.  Last year, at her kindergarten screening, she was tested reading on a 4th grade level.  I asked her mother to give me a report on how her Kindergarten year went.  I was amazed to hear of her great accomplishments.  So, from the words of her mother:
  "Emily learned the See abc's" reading program over the space of one Summer. She was only 4. By the time she was finished she still had a year until she'd start kindergarten, but it was all I could do to keep her entertained! She was so excited to read anything and everything I put in front of her.
  

  She started kindergarten the following year finishing a chapter book every other night. She could pick up Harry Potter and read fluidly. She even surpassed her older sister's reading level! She reads with influxes in her voice that make her much more interesting to listen to, and her comprehension was there by the time she started school.

  Because Emily didn't have the hurdle of learning to sound words out or try to understand what she was reading, she started trying new things. She could read the instructions on every worksheet herself and figure out what she needed to do. While other children memorized sight words and sounded out words like pot and cat, Emily was leaps and bounds ahead doing third grade math, science and reading at the level of a sixth or seventh grader. Reading wasn't an issue so she moved on to new challenges like fractions, times tables and more. 

  Her teachers loved that, even though she knew a great deal more than many of her peers, she went out of her way to teach what she'd learned rather than parade it over them that she could do it. She loves to teach and help other students learn the way she did.

  Because of her English comprehension and reading level she is top of her class with the Dual Language Immersion Portuguese program in her school. She isn't stumbling to make sense of her own language in any way, which, I believe, made her a perfect candidate for trying some new. Her Portuguese teacher was very impressed by her comprehension and even her level of understanding.

  All of this started with the See abc's Reading program. I believe it gave her the confidence she needed to feel like she could accomplish anything. I also feel that by learning to read before you begin kindergarten you are launched forward in your education to such a degree that you aren't held back by the typical stumbling blocks that other children often face. I am so grateful every day that Emily was able to use this program and that she's learned to love learning."

  Isn't that fantastic!!! Of course, it also takes a dedicated mother who is willing to sit down with their child for 20-30 minutes a day and teach them. But, the rewards from that are tremendous.

  Thanks Amy and Emily for sharing your story. Best of luck in First Grade Emily!

  Doreese
• 
  

  10:18a

For any of you new moms out there, I hope you've taken the advice in my last blog and have been reading "with" your newborns.  Once you start, make it a habit, and your baby will automatically grow up with reading "in their systems."  It'll be a built in part of their lives.

As I said last time, I'll be talking about the types of books that you should get for baby's first books. Here's a list:

1.  Board Books - These are made of very sturdy, thick cardboard and can withstand all the abuse that little ones can dish out: the chewing on, drooling on and whatever else on!

2.  Plastic Books - These books have pages made of plastic.  My children's favorite book was a plastic book about bath time.  They could pick it up easily because the pages could bend.  And, I loved it because when it got dirty, I could wash it off with soap and water!

3.  Books that have something in it that makes a noise; i.e., squeeze it and it squeaks.

4.  Books made of fabric.  I made a couple of quiet books for my children.  They all loved those!  Even though the babies couldn't perform the skills the book taught, they still loved holding it and pulling on the different parts.  Or watching me do the different things.  There may now be fabric books that are just story books.  Oh yeah, I remember seeing something in a fabric store a couple of years ago.  You can buy fabric on the bolt that is all ready for you to cut up and sew together to make up a story book.  Then when these get dirty, just throw them in the washer!


There are soooo many fun quiet book pages you can make out of just flannel and felt!  Look up "Quiet book" and "Quiet Book Patterns" on Google Images.  You'll get a lot of free ideas and see how easy it is for you to make one.

Well, happy story time with your precious little ones!

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last wrote.  I knew this entry would be easy to write up, but this summer has gotten away from me.  And, in this short time, my two new grandbabies have already changed a lot.  They're able to focus on things much longer which helps them to be more content to sit and look at their surroundings.  It just reminds me how special and extremely short these newborn days are!  In a few months, once they become mobile, they will no longer be a captive audience to your stories; having no option but to sit there and listen to you!

Doreese